Kennedy: A lightning rod still

At no time, not even after being hospitalized with a seizure, can Sen. Edward Kennedy escape the haters.

He has emerged in recent years as a front-rank senator, dedicated family patriarch, and galvanizing speaker on behalf of the presidential candidates of Sens. Barack Obama and John Kerry.

Still, there are letters such as one that arrived in this columnist’s e-mail on Monday afternoon. It read:

“Joel, are you composing your tribute yet to Teddy Kennedy? I’m so looking forward to your glowing acclaim you will certainly be heaping on him following his death . . . Oh, I’m sorry, he isn’t dead . . . yet. Must have been wishful thinking on Mary Jo’s parents part.
“Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment, could she Joel?”

What does this tell us?

Sarcasm is the rhetorical device of life’s losers. It is also the preferred device of those at the political extremes – particularly the radical right – who love to indulge in conspiracy theories and naked hate for those who differ with them . . . and lack the intellectual resources to mount a logical argument.

The Kennedys have always attracted extremes of envy and hate.

Schoolchildren in enclaves of the Deep South cheered the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A theater marquee, advertising the movie PT 109, read: “See the Japs almost get Kennedy.”

“RFK must die!” Sirhan Sirhan wrote in a letter to himself, shortly before shooting Sen. Robert Kennedy on the night of his win in the California primary.

Authors– even the estimable investigative reporter Seymour Hersh – have spent 40 years turning out trash books on JFK’s sex life, using false diaries, and suggesting that the Mafia’s Sam Giancana delivered Illinois’ 26 electoral votes to Kennedy in 1960.

Have they ever reconciled these accusations with Robert Kennedy’s relentless pursuit of the Mob while attorney general? Nope.

Edward Kennedy is not without sin. He was, by all accounts, an unfaithful first husband. He did have a few drinks on a plane ride back from Alaska, and tell black Irish jokes about his possible demise.

He has, however, straightened out his life, been happily married for the past 15 years, and fought for the poor and middle class citizens – at a time when conservative presidents were heaping benefits on the rich, and turning a cold shoulder to 47 million Americans who lack health insurance.

A generation ago, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W. Va., defeated Kennedy for the post of Senate Majority Whip. Learning that Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor, Byrd wept on the Senate floor.

The right-wing tried to get “Teddy” with the 1994 challenge of Mitt Romney, a venture capitalist who acquired companies and laid off workers. Kennedy did a great stretch run and handily beat him.